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Sunday, March 29, 2015

BOOK: A wrinkle in time

I never read a wrinkle in time as a child, and never really heard about it until I saw this graphic novel and thought I would give it a go. A wrinkle in time is a journey of siblings heading out to find themselves and reunite their family.

Meg is a grumpy, negative insecure teen and elder sister to twin brothers who are not really in the main body of the story and Charles Wallace a very strange child, wise beyond his years. At the beginning of the story you learn that the father is missing, who knows where? and the mother is not dealing with it well. She is highly emotional and the children decide to find the father to save the family.

I thought I was going to love this story as it started so well and the illustrations really swept me in. As time went on I found the story was getting weirder and weirder, however it was not engaging and I'm sorry to say at times I was bored. I really struggled to finish this book.

The colour scheme throughout the whole book is black white and blue, and at the start I thought this worked well, the way it was integrated into the story was fantastic however getting further down the line it started to become repetitive. Maybe I would have felt differently about this book if I had read it as a written novel rather than a graphic novel first.

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Saturday, March 28, 2015

BOOK: In Real Life

I'd like to start by saying what an absolutely gorgeous book, filled with cutesy style characters and beautiful illustration work. Both Anda's online and offline personas are full of life and positive role models. Anda the main character is drawn with a realistic girl figure, curvy and I personally loved the style.

I think the graphic novel was created to address some serious issues(gender, culture, etc) but it was over too quickly and the issues were somehow skated over. The fact that they were never really delved into made me feel like it was for a younger audience than myself. I originally picked up In Real Life as I related to the topic - loving gaming myself. I just can't help but feel like it was dramatically cut short, or chunks edited out of the story as it just didn't flow well for me.

The positive note is that I loved the illustrator Jen Wang's work and will be on the lookout for other pieces by her.

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BOOK: Outcast

I picked this up last month at my local travelling man, it seemed similar in style to the Revival series which I also started this year and really enjoyed. Unfortunately I didn't feel the same about Outcast.

Outcast is a world created by Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) in which people are possessed by demons. The people surrounding one man in particular Kyle, a loner, an orphan and a man that has lost his wife an daughter. Kyle is some sort of Exorcist banishing demons out of this world.

The pacing of this graphic novel was quite slow, quite a bit of talking but little action. And overall I just felt like it was building up to something but nothing really happened. The problem for me was the fact that I didn't really like any of the characters. So ultimately it was difficult to care about what was happening to them.

The artwork fitted the purpose well, and matched to the bleak story line. However it's just not for me, maybe it was the angular feel or the single muted colour scheme. I thought the characters also looked quite similar which made it hard to tell them apart at times.

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Sunday, March 22, 2015

Desk Set up 2015

I recently changed around my desk area, Tom and I have a joint office and we decided to swap sides.

This is the new arrangement, I wanted to show it off a little as I am so happy with the way it looks at the moment, and talk you through some of my artwork and decorative bits.

Artwork : -

I have a couple of pieces of artwork hung around the area either by myself or other artists, heres a little background on the pieces.

Enigman - The large black character with a question mark on his chest, Tom discovered this character when we were in spain together he has a money box of the same character and I wanted to buy some merchandise for his birthday once but couldn't find it available to buy online anywhere. So instead I painted him a poster.

Robin - This was a poster that came in a 'my geek box' package for February, I don't know the artist.

Cute Girls - Beneath the robin poster there are a couple of cute girl prints, these are from the very talented Mel Stringer. I've loved her work for years and treated myself to these two prints last year.

Me&You - The painting hidden behind the fox is a A3 painted version of one of my card designs. I love painting birds, especially ones with vibrant colours.

Fox - This was the first proper digital painting I ever did, I'm so happy with this piece. I use it as my logo across all sites.

Girl in neutral colours - Created by Abby Wright I think it was originally for her degree, which she sold off online after the show.

Landscape - I created this for a neighbour when I was really young, she kept it for many years and then gave it me framed as a graduation present. Such a thoughtful gift. The landscape is the view from my childhood bedroom.

Screaming girl - Created from a fashion image in a magazine when I was a teenager. I love this little canvas as it now reminds me of an old friend.

My main desk set up houses my laptop, monitor screen and lamp. I have a large cork board above my laptop, at the moment it is covered with photos and artwork but a lot of the time it is covered in reminders. I love candles and always have a couple scattered around my desk. I have a little white deer snow globe and Lego Grandpa Simpson on my monitor to the right.

My extension desk has a 'little' collection of graphic novels, this is my to be read pile. I have Alex + Ada Volume 2 pulled out as I just posted a short review of it on my blog yesterday. A Lego beach house creator kit, and cuddly fox. A 2015 good things jar, to remember all the good things at the end of the year. I like to collect greetings cards both for the artwork and generally just to have a bunch to choose between at home, they are all in the tin on the left hand side.

A closer look at this part of my desk area. Look at all the colour and gorgeous books,

This is a little close up of my art tool baskets, inside there are a collection of spectrum marker pens, crayons, fine liners, pencils etc. Beside the basket is my ring bound sketchbook. I will always choose ring bound books as they are easier to use and if you need to remove a sheet to scan or throw away it leaves no marks behind. On the wall, I have swatches of all my spectrum markers to see the actual colours as the lids aren't a good representation.

I hope you enjoyed having a little look at my desk area and creative space. I always enjoy looking at other peoples spaces.

I have used a couple of free downloads to edit my pictures a little, the washi tape and scrabble tiles are both free and are available for download and use,

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Saturday, March 21, 2015

BOOK: Alex + Ada Volume 2

The second bind up graphic novel of the Alex + Ada series, for me this was a must pre-order, I loved the first and couldn't wait to delve back into their lives. As a pre-order from amazon it was waiting for me when I got home from work. And I read it that night. Hurrah!

For anyone that doesn't know Alex is a human and Ada is a robot, bought as a gift for Alex, from his grandmother. Set in a world where robots are the norm, they are everywhere in different shapes and forms, but are not trusted by all.

During this second installment romance blossoms between the two, and you read/see their relationship developing alongside Ada developing herself. The story is quite simple and they don't try to over complicate things which I think only makes you enjoy it more.

As I said in the volume 1 review the artwork is simple, but gorgeous and matches the style of the story and characters beautifully. I am a big fan of the series. Pre-ordering Volume 3 anyone?

Fantastic read, if you enjoyed the first I would definitely recommend you pick this up.

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BOOK: Scarlet - The Lunar Chronicles - Book 2

The second book in the Lunar Chronicles series of fairy tale retelling.

This book features the familiar tale of Little Red Riding Hood or Scarlet as known here.

Throughout this book you catch up with Cinder from book one and follow along where her story left off last time. You are also introduced to Scarlet and Wolf. Avoiding any details for spoilers, I can't really mention anything about the story. However the characters, I still love Cinder and her snippets were the best parts within this book. Whilst I enjoyed the interaction between Scarlet and Wolf themselves I wasn't that interested in what was happening to them, or really cared about the characters. - Sorry!
By far, one of the greatest parts of this book was the new character Captain Thorne, he really stole the show, he was funny, and the way he was written really explored his character and expressions.

Captain Thorne - You are making me pick up Cress next.
The third book in the Lunar Chronicles series.